Through the Windshield

47 hours! I finally did the math and it added up to 47 hours. A person can do a lot in 47 hours. If I do my math right, 47 hours is just shy of 2 days. A person can accomplish a lot in 2 days. For 47 hours my oldest son, my youngest son, my dad and I drove across much of the United States. From Wichita, Kansas… northwest we drove to Grant, Nebraska. From there we drove to Franklin, TN. After a few days in TN we drove home to Phoenix, AZ. The driving… well most of it was a blur… I mean there were a lot of bugs on the windshield. Thanks to my dad it was cleaned at every gas station stop. There was a lot of flat land to be seen through the windshield…. But there was also a lot of beauty… lakes, mountains, valleys, hills, trees, flowers, animals, cities and so much more. There was so much to see through the windshield and as I look back I realize the trip wasn’t about what I could see, but it was what I experienced. It was funny memories with friends and family. It was a spooky drive at midnight through the fog and farmland of central Nebraska. It was finding the only small gas station open in the middle of the night as we watched the gas tank ride on empty for miles. It was time spent listening to all kinds of music with my 17 year old son. It was looking for all 50 state license plates. It was playing Green Glass Doors with Poppy (my dad). It was conversations with my son and my Dad that I will hold onto for a lifetime. We had some awesome breakfast at Pancake Pantry in Nashville. We experienced some good BBQ at “Fat Daddy’s” in Arkansas. We drove down Route 66 through Elk City, Oklahoma looking for anything open to eat for dinner. We even ate lunch at one of our favorite places in Albuquerque, NM – Dion’s Pizza (mmmm… hatch green chile/ham pizza with green chile ranch to dip it in). One of my favorite memories was watching my father squeeze in the back seat to play cards with my youngest son and hearing them laugh together.

It was tiring. It was boring. I was sick with a common cold most of the trip. It was miserable at times. It was frustrating… but it was an experience. It wasn’t about what I viewed through the windshield… It was about the experience and the memories. I took a few pictures along the way, but they don’t tell the whole story of our experience.

This happens in life right? You look through the “windshield” at your life and see a lot of nothing sometimes. Maybe you dread what you see. Maybe you are scared of what you see. Maybe you just don’t know the directions. Maybe you feel nervous, anxious or frustrated. Maybe you are just feeling like you aren’t going anywhere. You are sick and tired of looking through the windshield of life!

Life is about perspective. You can “make lemonade from lemons” or you can see “the glass as half empty or half full”. However, sometimes as you look out the windshield of life you might just realize it’s not that bad… maybe even great. Keep going forward and following your path. You may just realize that your life is full of promise, positivity and hope. You will eventually pass through the rugged roads, but you must keep going and find that there is a light at the end of the tunnel… the water is under the bridge and you will find rest. You may just find that there are good things happening in the midst of your situations. If you keep a positive perspective when looking through the windshield of life you can find that it just may be GREAT!

Look through the windshield. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel?